Unlocking the Scriptures: What the Bible Is, How We Got It, and Why We Can Trust It

By Jeff Lasseigne and Greg Laurie

With clarity and wit, pastor and Bible teacher provides an easy-to-use guide to the Bible, highlighting its origin, history, trustworthiness, and significance as well as key aspects of every book from Genesis to Revelation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781493412457

Jeff Lasseigne

Jeff Lasseigne has been part of Harvest Christian Fellowship since 1980 and joined the pastoral staff in 1989. He teaches the midweek Bible study and, as one of the administrative pastors, assists with oversight of the church. Jeff has written two other books, Highway 66 and Unlocking the Last Days, a verse-by-verse study through the book of Revelation. Jeff enjoys traveling and reading, and loves all things England. He and his wife, Lorraine, live in California.

Book preview

Word.

Part 1

The Big Picture

1

How We Got the Bible

Many years ago, I was trying to share the gospel with a co-worker, and when I made reference to the Bible, he said, The Bible is nothing more than a collection of fables written by a bunch of old Jewish men. So I smiled and said, What if you’re wrong, and the Bible actually is God’s Word? What will you say when you stand before the Lord? He winked at me and said, I’ll think of something.

Good luck with that!

Let’s begin with some basic facts about the Bible.

What Is the Bible?

Dr. David Jeremiah writes, The Bible is the Word of God in the words of man, and I like that definition.1 John MacArthur says, The Bible is a collection of 66 documents inspired by God.2 Greg Laurie likes to call the Bible the user’s manual for life. In the simplest of terms, the Bible is the Word of God. It is God’s written revelation of Himself and of His will for mankind.

Our English word Bible means book. It comes from the Latin word biblia and the Greek word biblios. Interestingly, the word Bible is not found in the Bible, but that’s not a major mystery. All of the New Testament was written by the end of the first century, and then it wasn’t until the second century that the church began calling it the Bible, so that particular title is not found in Scripture. The Bible is far beyond any book and is nothing less than God’s voice from heaven. It’s not the book of the month or the book of the year; it’s the book of eternity!

There are over a dozen names and titles in the Old and New Testaments that are used for the Bible. For example, in Psalm 19:7 it’s called the Law of the LORD, and David writes, The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul (NIV). In Romans 1:1–2 Paul calls it the Holy Scriptures, and he writes of the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. The word Scripture means sacred writings. Other religions have their sacred writings: the Muslims have the Koran, Mormonism has the Book of Mormon, and the atheists have the complete works of Dr. Seuss!

In Ephesians 6:17 Paul gives the Bible two more names: the sword of the Spirit and the word of God. In John’s Gospel Jesus called it truth in His prayer to the Father, when He said, Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (17:17). Those are just a few of the many names and titles for the Bible.

From the divine perspective the Bible is one book with one Author and one message. From the human perspective it’s also recognized as a collection of sixty-six books with different authors and subjects. It’s not unlike the human body in some ways. We have one body, but that body is made up of many different parts, all working together. So the one book of the Bible is divided up into sixty-six different books, and those sixty-six books are divided up into two testaments—the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.

The word testament means covenant or agreement. The Old Testament is God’s covenant with Israel, and that covenant included any non-Jew who believed by faith. Paul calls that first covenant the Old Testament in 2 Corinthians 3:14. The New Testament is God’s covenant with mankind about salvation in Jesus Christ (see Matt. 26:28). The Old Testament prepared people for the coming of the Savior while the New Testament tells us that the Savior has come—and is coming back again!

The Old Testament covenant can be summarized by the word law while the New Testament covenant is summarized by the word grace. In John 1:17 we read, For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is associated with Moses and Mount Sinai. The New Testament is associated with Jesus and Calvary. The Old Testament begins in Genesis 1:1 with God; the New Testament begins in Matthew 1:1 with Jesus Christ. The Old Testament ends in Malachi 4 with a curse, while the New Testament ends in Revelation 22 with grace.

Why Is the Bible So Important?

1. It’s God’s communication to us.

When God created Adam and Eve, He spoke with them personally; face-to-face, if you will. But when they sinned, they broke off their fellowship and communication with God. So while God has occasionally spoken to individuals such as Moses and Abraham, He primarily communicates to us through His written Word. The good news is that one day, when Christ returns, our communication will once again be face-to-face.

2. It reveals God’s nature to us.

Without the Bible, we wouldn’t know who God is or about any of His characteristics and attributes. But in the pages of Scripture we learn that God is eternal; He has a triune nature of Father, Son, and Spirit; He is holy; He is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient; and so forth. We wouldn’t know those things apart from God’s revelation to us through His Word.

3. It answers our greatest questions.

Through the Scriptures, we find the answers to such questions as: Where did I come from? (God created us in His own image.) Why am I here? (To know God and bring Him glory.) What happens after death? (We go to either heaven or hell.) There’s the often-told story about comedian and actor W. C. Fields, who was a staunch atheist and a heavy drinker. Toward the later part of his life he was caught thumbing through a Bible, and when he was asked what he was doing, he famously replied, Looking for loopholes.

4. It addresses our greatest needs.

In Scripture, we learn that everyone is a sinner in need of a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. We also discover that forgiveness and salvation only come through faith in Christ—through His sacrifice and resurrection. At the same time, the Bible shows us how we are to live in this world as we prepare ourselves for the next.

Where Did the Bible Come From?

Short answer: it came from God!

More than two thousand times in the Old Testament alone, the Bible declares that God is speaking. Time and time again, we find phrases like, The LORD said, or God declared, or The Word of the LORD came. In the New Testament there are more than three dozen instances where people speak of the Word of God in referring to the Old Testament (see Luke 4:4) and specific statements that Scripture is literally God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16 NIV) and that God spoke through holy people (see 2 Pet. 1:21). What the Bible says, God says!

The Bible came from God, and that transmission process included using holy men of God (2 Pet. 1:21). The actual writing and recording of the Old Testament took place over a thousand-year period, starting with Moses—either writing Job or Genesis—and then ending chronologically with the book of Nehemiah, written by Nehemiah and Ezra.

After that thousand-year period of the Old Testament being written, there were four hundred years when God did not speak or provide any revelations. That period is commonly referred to as the four hundred years of silence, and I will address that topic later in the book. Then finally, the New Testament was written in about a fifty-year period, between AD 45–95, being completed by the end of the first century. So when we take the thousand years of the Old Testament, followed by the four hundred years of silence, and add in the hundred years of the first century, we have about fifteen hundred years during which the Bible was written and recorded by God’s chosen vessels.

In addition to being completed over a period of fifteen hundred years, the Bible was written by at least forty different writers whom we know of. As I already mentioned, the first writer and recorder was Moses. On the other end of the spectrum, the very last writer was the apostle John, near the end of the first century. Other Bible writers included prophets such as Samuel, Jeremiah, and Malachi. Some of those writers were shepherds such as Hosea and Amos.

Joining them we have a soldier (Joshua), a scribe (Ezra), a prime minister (Daniel), a tax collector (Matthew), and a doctor (Luke). Other New Testament writers were fishermen such as Peter and John. So the Bible was written over a period of fifteen hundred years, by at least forty different writers who came from a wide variety of backgrounds and occupations. These facts are important to note, because while there was a wide variety in the circumstances, years, and people, the message and theme of Scripture are consistent.

The various books of the Bible were written on three different continents: Africa (Moses in the Sinai desert), Asia (Ezekiel in Babylon), and Europe (Paul in Rome). The Bible was also written in three different languages: the Old Testament in Hebrew, with a few parts in Aramaic, and then the New Testament in Greek. The writers were also in very different and oftentimes difficult circumstances. For example, Moses was in the wilderness, Ezekiel was a captive in Babylon, Paul was a prisoner in Rome, and John was banished to an island.

Parts of the Bible were written to individuals. Other parts were written to specific groups or to God’s people in general. But in spite of all that variety, the Bible is the history of God’s dealings with humankind. It has two dominant themes: humanity’s sin and God’s salvation. This fact reveals its divine nature.

Another detail helps us to appreciate the divine nature of Scripture: the people in the Bible are presented to us with flaws and all. Someone trying to write a book that proposed to be the Word of God would paint all of its people in the most favorable light. But the Bible gives us the heroes of the faith with all their flaws and failures on display.

For example, faithful Noah got drunk. The great Abraham lied about his wife, Sarah. Humble Moses got angry and missed out on the Promised Land. Wise Solomon started out well and ended terribly. Brave Peter denied the Lord three times. Missionaries Paul and Barnabas exchanged heated words over Mark. And the list goes on. The Bible is about a real Savior—and real sinners!

How Was the Bible Put Together?

You may have heard of the canon of Scripture. The word canon is not referring to an outdated military weapon that fires cannon balls! The English word canon comes from the Greek word kanon. In Greek culture, a kanon was a measuring rod, ruler, or staff. Today’s counterpart would be a ruler or a tape measure.

So the term canon of Scripture refers to the books that are in the Bible, which have measured up to the standards of being divinely inspired by God. In other words, when the Old Testament and New Testament were put together, there was a standard used to determine which books did, and did not, belong in the Bible. What was that standard and measurement?

Let me first say that in the early centuries of the church, Christians were sometimes put to death for having copies of the Scriptures because of the great persecution that existed in those times. So while our question today is, Which books belong in the Bible? back then the question was, Which books are worth dying for? Let me also point out that God—not people—decided which books ended up in the Bible. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, people simply recognized which books were divinely inspired. In fact, as soon as God’s Word was received and recorded, it was already inspired of God whether people recognized it or not.

Let’s begin with the Old Testament books. We know that God directed certain individuals to write down their revelations and experiences. For example, in Exodus 17, after Joshua and the armies of Israel defeated the Amalekites, we read, Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua’ (Exod. 17:14). Later, in Exodus 24:4, we’re clearly told, And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD.

Those earlier writings were kept alongside the ark of the covenant. We read about this in Scriptures such as Deuteronomy 31, which reads:

So it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying: Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. (Deut. 31:24–26)

Then after the temple was built, the sacred writings were kept inside it. That special attention and reverence given to those writings testifies to how God’s people recognized it to be the Word of God.

When the time of captivity came, and the Jews were carried off to Babylon, it is believed that they took those writings with them. Later on, they were probably collected by Daniel. In Daniel 9:2, we read, In the first year of [the king’s] reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel was saying he knew that the captivity would last seventy years because of Jeremiah’s written prophecy. So Daniel refers to the books, which would be the writings of Moses, Samuel, and Jeremiah—and all of it was Scripture.

After the Babylonian captivity ended and the Jews returned to their homeland, it is believed that Ezra the priest and other leaders of Judah continued to collect the writings and safeguard them in the newly built second temple. In Nehemiah 8, the people gathered together in front of the temple and Ezra read to them from the Book of the law of Moses (see Neh. 8:1–8). So about four hundred years before the birth of Christ, all the Old Testament books had been written and collected.

Many scholars believe that Ezra led the council of leaders who identified Holy Scripture from other religious writings. Most of the Old Testament books were written by a recognized prophet of God such as Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Zechariah. The remaining Old Testament books were written by godly leaders such as Joshua, Nehemiah, and Ezra. All of the Old Testament books gave clear evidence of being inspired of God. And ultimately, just as God inspired those who wrote the words, God inspired His people to know which books belonged in the canon of Old Testament Scripture.

The same is true for the New Testament canon of Scripture. God determined the canon and then the church discovered the canon. The canon of Scripture was not created by the church; rather, the church recognized it. But there are a few different details about the New Testament canon process. All of the books for consideration in the New Testament had to be written by an apostle or by a known associate of the apostles. At least twenty-three of the twenty-seven New Testament books were written by apostles, making the authorship qualification easier.

Only Mark, Luke, Acts, and Hebrews were questioned in the area of authorship. John Mark, who wrote the second Gospel, was the spiritual son and disciple of Peter, so he had Peter’s stamp of approval and apostleship on his book. Luke wrote the third Gospel, as well as Acts. Luke sought out the eyewitness accounts of the other apostles in composing his Gospel account (see Luke 1:2–3). Luke was also a very close associate of Paul on his missionary journeys, so he knew many details firsthand. The writer of Hebrews is unknown, but it was accepted by the early church fathers because of its inspired content and its close connection to the Old Testament book of Leviticus.

Besides authorship by an apostle, the early church leaders also gave careful consideration to the canon of Scripture based upon spiritual content, doctrinal soundness, and most importantly, recognition of divine inspiration. It also helped that all of the New Testament was written during the lifetimes of many of the apostles and witnesses of Christ. Within twenty-five years of Jesus’s death, the New Testament was already being written, and it was completed before the end of that first century—all within a fifty-year period. In fact, if you set aside the five books written by John (his Gospel, his three epistles, and Revelation), the rest of the New Testament was completed in just twenty-five years—by AD 70.

It’s worth noting that early on, before any so-called official recognition, Peter was already calling the epistles of Paul holy Scripture. In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter speaks of evil people twisting the words of Paul in his epistles, just as they do with the rest of the Scriptures. Peter was bearing witness that Paul’s letters were inspired Scripture, which brings us to a very important discussion on the subject of inspiration.

Second Timothy 3:16 tells us that all Scripture, including both the Old Testament and the New Testament, is given to us by inspiration of God, which literally means that it’s breathed out from God. The Scriptures do not breathe out God; God breathes out the Scriptures. All of the various prophets and apostles who received and recorded the divine words of God were led and guided by the Holy Spirit. This is called divine inspiration.

The men themselves weren’t inspired; only God’s Word is inspired—or divine and perfect. Later in this book we’ll talk about Bible translations, but let me say here that the translations are not inspired. What I mean is that only the original writings were perfectly inspired by God, while the copies and translations that we now have, though holy, are not inspired in the true sense of divine inspiration. It doesn’t make them any less reliable, and we’ll talk more about that in a later chapter.

Second Peter 1:20–21 is another passage on this subject of divine inspiration: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Once again, these verses explain that no Scripture is of human origin but rather godly men were used as human instruments as God spoke to them, and through them, to communicate His holy words.

Over 3,800 times in the Bible, the writers call what they were writing the Word of God. Peter also explains that no Scripture is of any private interpretation (v. 20), which means that these godly men weren’t figuring out divine truth by their own human wisdom or efforts. God was supernaturally revealing it to them.

It reminds us of when Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God in Caesarea Philippi, as recorded in Matthew 16:16. Jesus explained to Peter afterward, Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven (v. 17).

So the New Testament was all written by the end of the first century, and not many years later, in about AD 140, the formation of the New Testament canon began. During the next fifty years, most of the New Testament books were officially recognized as inspired and as part of the canon of Scripture, with a few exceptions.

A few New Testament books and letters took a little longer, due to different concerns. As I already mentioned, we still don’t know who was the human author of Hebrews. In the famous words of early church father Origen, Only God knows certainly, but to that we would add that we absolutely know that God wrote Hebrews.3

Another epistle that was questioned was the letter of James. That’s because James placed a strong emphasis on works and actions demonstrating genuine faith, and on the surface almost seemed to contradict the New Testament emphasis of salvation by faith alone. One of the criteria for canon consideration was agreement with the rest of Scripture. Eventually, it was understood that James was describing the fruit of our salvation (good works) while Paul was describing the root of our salvation (faith alone). The fact that James was the half-brother of Jesus, and had been the leader of the early church in Jerusalem, also helped in the process of getting his epistle included in the canon.

All twenty-seven of our New Testament books were officially recognized and canonized by the year 397. And so, in basic terms, that’s how we got our Bible!

Can Any More Books Be Added to the Bible?

The answer is no! After the final New Testament book (Revelation) was written, we find a clear warning at the end: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life (Rev. 22:18–19).

That particular warning is specifically in regard to the prophecy of Revelation, but there are similar warnings in Scripture against tampering with God’s Word. In Deuteronomy 4:2, we read, You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it. Again, in Deuteronomy 12:32, it says, Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Then in Proverbs 30:5–6 we find, Every word of God is flawless. . . . Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar (NIV). Also, in Galatians 1:8, Paul said, If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. So this is a consistent warning throughout Scripture.

Conclusion

Studying these issues concerning the Bible is vital, because the Bible itself is so vital to us as believers. Without inspired Scripture, we would have little knowledge of God or communication from God—only what we hear and see in creation.

The Bible is God’s written Word to you, and in it He tells you that He loves you!

2

Why We Can Trust the Bible

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